In the middle of closing a deal on a 2010 Fusion Hybrid, the buyer asks the salesman: “Didn’t I trade in a 1928 Whippet for a used Model A with you?” Salesman Al Steinmetz whips out his meticulous sales notebook, and says “Yes, I credited you $12.65 for a 1928 Whippet as a trade in for a 1929 Ford Model A that you bought for $25. On July 29, 1939”.
Car salesmen love repeat business, but not many are still around after seventy-one years to take advantage of it. Or keep records of every one of the thousands of other transactions Al Steinmetz has ever made since. So if you’re still feeling screwed over on that Granada you bought back in ’74, Al can go over the numbers with you. And you’ll probably leave happily, driving a new Ford, quite likely. Honesty and longevity has that effect on folks. At eighty-eight, Al is still on his game.
Does he still think it rides akin to a Mercedes?
He should be called “Fordman.”
Awesome story! In Eugene, naturally.
The 1928 Whippet was a handsome car: http://www.gvmvdc.org.au/images/clubphotos/images/1928%20Whippet.jpg
No SYNC here: http://www.myclassiccarcollection.com/files/WHP-1928-001_I04_Full_Size.jpg
When my father was born was born my grandparents drove to the hospital in a 1929 Whippet.
Apparently that’s the kind of loyalty you get when you don’t sell pink cars to colorblind people!
Lol!
Hah! I got a laugh out of that, Jack.
On the other hand, I doubt Mr. Steinmetz has ever had the pleasure of engaging in a triple-tryst during a road trip in his Porsche.
Just damn
Wow, what a memory! I’m hoping I’m still on this planet at 88 years of age, much less still working…
Hooray for Mr. Steinmetz!
Was he trading in the Model A? I’ll give him double what he paid for it.
What — you offering fifty bucks and two 1928 Whippets…?
marvelous story, thx.
Nullo’s identity unveiled!
In 1985, I was shopping for a new car. I dropped by a Pontiac dealer to check out the 1986 Tempest. The salesman who scooped me up, was an older gentleman, probably in his 80s at the time. He introduced himself, and we exchanged pleasantries.
He wanted to know about my family as he had known several Schwartzes in his time. My Grandfather (who was deceased at that time), and my Father (who passed away a few years later), had both been lawyers active in civic affairs. When I gave him their names, he thought for a few seconds and asked me if my Grandfather had lived on a certain street before WWII. I said that he had lived there in the late 1920s and the 1930s.
The salesman said I recall trading him a Pontiac sedan for a Pierce Arrow Limousine around 1932.
I nearly fainted.
My Father had often told me the story of how my Grandfather had received the Pierce Arrow Limousine as his fee for liquidating a bankrupt taxi company in the early years of the Great Depression, and in 1932, concluding that he needed to economize for the long run, had traded it for a Pontiac sedan.
I didn’t buy the Tempest, it was the same car as the Celebrity, but it had a higher sticker.
Mr. Schwartz, are you Canadian? The last Tempest was Canada only and related to the Chevy Corsica. The Celebrity was related to the Pontiac 6000. (I say this as a former Celebrity owner and with an uncle who had a 6000. Well Uncle Tim was always a sportier guy anyway. {rolls eyes})
We have a guy whose been around close, but not quite as long, as Mr. Steinmetz. I’m always amazed at how he can remember so many years worth of customers, their children, and their grandchildren, on sight, as well as remember what they like in a car, and always seems to know the right thing to show them first before they even ask.
That’s why its called “salesman” as opposed to today’s “just an order taker”
I’m curious to know what the inflation adjusted price for the traded Whippet and the purchased Model A would be.
Either way this story is really cool.
If you just apply the Consumer Price Index, $25 in 1939 dollars would be equal to $392 in 2010 dollars.
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
That is an amazing story; thanks for posting, Paul!
My father had a couple of guys like that at his Chevy dealership (we’re talking 45-50 years ago). And yeah, they used to amaze me with the stories about deals they had done back in the 1920’s.
One thing’s for sure: Nobody stays this long in the car business by trying to rape and rob every customer that comes thru the door. Somewhere along the line, I get the feeling that this guy is reasonably straight . . . . . well, for a car salesman, anyway.
Yeah, it’s called karma. Sad to say, it’s all too rare, especially in auto sales. Intentionally screwing over a customer might make a quick buck, but it’s unlikely to garner repeat business. It’s also unlikely that most car salesman really look at the job as a life-long career. I’m not sure I can blame them much as the whole management structure is based primarily on short-term gains, i.e., greed. Hell, a couple of times I bought a car and called back a week or two later to find that my salesman no longer worked at the place. In fact, I can only recall one time returning to a dealership a few years later to speak with the same guy I had the first time.
I suspect this Steinmetz guy’s (and his employer’s) attitude wasn’t one of making as much money as he possibly could off of every customer, but just making the sale was enough, even if the commission was small.
It vividly reminds me of the Edmunds article when a writer went ‘undercover’ to be a car salesman. During the interview process to get hired, he quickly learned that the only thing that really got the attention of the interviewer was when he was asked why he wanted to be a salesman, he would answer, “To make lots of money!”. Nothing else during the interview process seemed to really matter much.
DId I get my links crossed up & click onto ‘the Onion’ by mistake????
Is this the whippet he traded in?
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs404.snc4/46704_429159891667_626121667_4857186_6701063_n.jpg
I saw it by the side of the road in Keremeos, BC.